Addresses the need to clarify dimensions of holistic approaches to integrating children's services by examining current collaborative initiatives in Ontario, Canada. Outlines social and demographic trends, discusses ecological perspectives influencing the cooperation movement, and explores murky implementation issues. Cooperative ventures must…

This article critically analyses the extent to which the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) has been successful in meeting its core objective of raising the achievement of minority ethnic groups who are at risk of underachieving. The article provides an historical analysis of the Grant, sets the Grant within the context of the Labour…

Integration of economic and skill-development policies in South Korea and Taiwan via state planning has been more successful than free-market alternatives in contributing to economic growth and raising academic achievement levels. Global pressures are driving training reforms in both countries, which remain committed to steering the economy.…

Traces how the meaning of "skill" has broadened considerably since the 1950s by examining relevant policy literature and the central, "re-defining" role of the (British) Manpower Services Commission and Further Education Unity in the 1970s and 1980s. Recent usage seems compatible with a low-skill economy. (Contains 71…

Discusses globalization effects on national policy in Taiwan, focusing on how the higher education sector has transformed itself under the global tide of marketization and decentralization. Although globalization trends are clear, the nation-state is still a powerful actor in shaping national development and resolving global-national tensions.…

The term 'spin' is conventionally used to refer to the process and products of purposively managing information in order to present institutions, individuals, policies, practices and/or ideas in a favourable light and thereby mobilize support for them. Attempts to manage news and political communications are not new. However, the New Labour…

Concerned with Stephen Ball's theoretical and empirical contribution to contemporary "education policy sociology," this article examines the efficacy of his theoretical eclecticism, highlighting incompatibilities in his interpretation and application of certain social and political theorists. Ball's representation of the policy cycle, as…

Between 1984-1989, following establishment of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, a reform-oriented, noncollective professional project emerged that marooned 30 percent of the nursing work force in an obsolescent occupational group. UKCC eroded nursing's labor-market position with the National Health…

Examines shifting discourses of (corporate) leadership in the changing policy context of the English further-education sector, drawing on data from an Economic and Research Council project and highlighting middle managers' experiences. Awareness of varied, alternative interpretations of democratic professionalism may encourage new ways of thinking…

Argues against the juggernaut view of globalization, suggesting that much depends on how we engage with global forces to mitigate their worst consequences and use them to advantage. Views democratic nation-building, informed by education, as pivotal to the engagement process. Locally, educators must retrieve the "public" in public…

Excoriates a (British) National Educational Research Academy consultation paper for its inadequate representation of educational research and its misconception of research's role and purpose as solely short-term and practical. The paper portends an absolute standardization of research purposes, procedures, reporting, and dissemination. (MLH)

British primary reform proposals are attempting to square current criticism of schools with a school-based teacher-training model. Development of the National Curriculum has exposed weaknesses in elementary teachers' subject and curricular knowledge. Teacher-education issues include balance among subject, curriculum, and pedagogical studies; the…

Globalization, referring to the formation of world systems, embraces finance and trade; communications and information technologies; migration and tourism; global societies; linguistic, cultural, and ideological convergence; and signs and images. Globalization does not negate the nation-state, but it changes its circumstances and makes education…

Indepth interviews with senior managers in six Australian universities revealed messy policy processes and considerable variation in quality policy practices. Quality policy's "big-picture" effect was to enhance national government control of higher education from a distance. A further effect was to increase inequalities among and within…

Concerned about working-class failure, argues that recent (British) government policies have insufficiently considered sociological studies on how social class affects educational success or failure. Social-inclusion policies must address forms of middle-class self-exclusion from mainstream public education as well as working-class social…